Truven Top 100 Hospital Scores Measure 'Leadership Impact'

Chenoweth adds that all top 100 hospitals had to meet performance thresholds in each category. For example, no hospital could be listed if it had lost money, even if it excelled in several of the other categories.  "We don't want to have a wildly out-of-balance organization. They have to be in balance," she says.

Hospitals that win a mention within the list also don't have to pay Truven to publicize their honor, Chenoweth says.

In a news release, Truven said that 2,922 short-term, acute-care, non-federal hospitals were eligible for evaluation. Data used was culled from Medicare cost reports and the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) report, as well as core measures and patient experience reviews as reported to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and which is posted on Medicare's Hospital Compare website.  The data reflects five-year performance in most of the nine categories, and three years for others, including length of stay, complications and mortality.

Hospitals can not apply to be on the list.

Truven also said that if inpatients who are Medicare beneficiaries treated at all the other 2,822 hospitals received the same level of care as those treated in the top 100, more than 164,000 lives would be saved, 82,000 additional patients would not have incurred complications from their hospitalizations, $6 billion would have been saved, and the average length of stay would have been decreased by a half a day. 

"If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater," the company said.